


tonight it's halloween

by outlawslikeus



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Halloween, Horror, Missing Scene, Not Beta Read, Party, Science Fiction, Technology, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25797088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outlawslikeus/pseuds/outlawslikeus
Summary: “You know where he is now?"“Really happy and successful?”“He’s in a mental hospital.”Michael breaks through to Jeremy during the Halloween party.
Relationships: Jeremy Heere & Jeremy Heere's Squip, Jeremy Heere & Michael Mell, Rich Goranski & Jeremy Heere
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	tonight it's halloween

**Author's Note:**

> One moment I'm thinking "what if BMC focused on its horror aspect," as the show is heavily inspired by horror movies of the 1980s, and the next, I'm writing this fic.
> 
> Listen to [The SQUIP Stalks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBdIOITw0rE) while reading for full creepy vibes.

Even if Jeremy doesn’t talk to him, doesn’t look at him, doesn’t even acknowledge he exists anymore, Michael can’t help but still be concerned.

Which is why he starts digging. When it’s late and he has a mind full of doubts and fears and nothing better to do, he silently gets out of bed and powers on his laptop on his desk. He doesn’t turn on the lights since he’s supposed to be asleep and if his parents happen to walk by his room and find him awake he’ll probably get in trouble. When his laptop boots up, he opens an incognito tab and looks up _SQUIP_ . Google returns approximately 600 results in 0.72 seconds. The first result is for some guy named _Thomas Squip_. Not very helpful. So he scrolls. And scrolls. And when he reaches page _twenty_ of Google, he gives up.

There’s nothing about a supercomputer or a pill or anything relevant to what he’s looking for at all. He sits there, in his dark room, illuminated only by the cold blues of his laptop screen, and blinks in confusion. Nothing? Since when is there _nothing_ about a topic on the internet? The internet never stops or shuts up. There’s billions of people on it and all with something to say. It’s inconceivable that there’s a topic that hasn’t been talked about somewhere on the internet before. Which is how he comes to the sinking suspicion that people are being _stopped_ from talking about it. 

A shiver runs through him, which he dismisses as autumn chill, even though he knows better. He suppresses the urge to look around his room because he knows he’s alone. It’s the fact that it’s one in the morning and dark that makes him more scared than he should be, he rationalizes. He closes out of the tab and is suddenly glad for his own paranoia when he had chosen to use an incognito one. It’s going to be harder than before to sleep now but he doesn’t know where to begin to try to find out more, or even if he should.

* * *

Michael has kind of developed a bad habit of playing World of Warcraft at hours he _definitely_ shouldn't be awake. Which is what actually leads to his next breakthrough. He's made a handful of decent friends through the guild he's been in (and the one Jeremy used to be in, too) and so one night while he's voice chatting with one of the newer members while grinding mats, they get talking about their real life. He mentions going through a hard time being dumped by his best friend, though he skips the part where his best friend was also his only friend. Although he's made his peace with being a loser and all that, the fact that he only had one friend isn't exactly something he wants to broadcast, nor is it particularly relevant to the story. He talks about how his friend had bought some shady drug from Japan and had completely reinvented himself, and in that process had cut him out, but what he doesn't expect is what he hears interrupt him:

"Wait. Dude. Are you talking about a _SQUIP?_ "

He’s instantly suspicious. How the hell does this random guy he met playing _Warcraft_ know about a SQUIP? Is this a trap?

It takes some convincing, but eventually his guildmate, _Shad0wBlazarH_ , convinces him that his brother had taken one, too.

Michael asks for more information about SQUIPs, hoping to hear that all his fears are irrational, that Jeremy will be totally fine and he’s just worried about nothing, that there’s a perfectly rational explanation for why he can’t find a single mention of this technology on the internet, but what he gets is a million times worse.

He finds out how their brother is now in a mental hospital, after trying to get the thing out. And he _knows_ that mental hospitals aren’t necessarily bad or scary, but he played _Outlast_ just a few weeks ago and he can’t help but think of that dilapidated, dark prison full of murderous patients and of Jeremy being stuck in there himself, or worse, fitting in. 

* * *

Michael finds Jeremy at the Halloween night party (or rather, they find each other). It’s not the first time he’s seen Jeremy since he’s started ignoring him. Far from it, actually. They walk past each other practically every day at school, but Jeremy just acts like he doesn’t exist. But for some reason, maybe because they’re in the privacy of this bathroom, where no one can see Jeremy interacting with him, he’s chosen to acknowledge him.

And no matter how angry he is at Jeremy, he knows the anger is temporary, that they’ll get over this wound in their friendship eventually. But not if he doesn’t warn him about what he’s found out.

“Think, man! We’re talking an insanely powerful supercomputer and you’re using it to… what, get laid? Did it ever occur to you that there could be consequences? That you’re messing with something you don’t understand?”

“You’re the one who said technology isn’t dangerous.”

“Yeah, unless you use it like _you_.”

Jeremy stares back at him, incredulous, annoyed. “And I thought Chloe was jealous…”

“I’m trying to look out for you!”

“Really? Because I think you’re pissed I have one and you don’t!”

“Come on—”

“I’m looking out for myself. For the first time in my life! With my history, I’d say I deserve that.” 

And Michael gets that. He really does. The world is unfair to people like them. Normally, he would support Jeremy taking an opportunity to counter the hand they’ve been dealt, but he just can’t get over what he knows about the SQUIP and the implications of its existence.

“And I don’t know about your friend’s brother’s whatever, but if you’re telling me his SQUIP made him crazy—”

“His SQUIP didn’t make him crazy,” he clarifies.

“Oh. Well… There you go.”

“He went crazy trying to _get it out_ ,” he says, hoping that this will get through to him.

“Then I’ve got nothing to worry about. Why would I want that?”

Michael wants to tear his hair out as he watches Jeremy get up and make his way to the door. A part of him thinks that he should just let him walk away and reap the consequences of his actions, but he can’t forget what he knows. _Last chance,_ he thinks. He has to impress upon Jeremy just how _scary_ all of this is.

“What if it makes you do something you don’t want it to.”

That stops him dead in his tracks. _It’s working_ , he thinks, and then he continues.

“You don’t even know where it came from—and _Japan_ is not a suitable answer,” he says when he sees Jeremy turning around and opening his mouth to interject. “You don’t know who made it and for what reasons. What if it’s like, like a software that pretends to be helpful or something but is really stealing your credit card info!”

“I don’t even _have_ a credit card,” Jeremy protests, but Michael can see that he’s thinking about it.

“It’s an analogy. Just… please think about what it could do, okay?”

He watches as Jeremy slowly sits back down on the edge of the tub.

“Okay. And thanks, thanks for always looking out for me, man. You didn’t have to, especially after I… yeah. Thanks.”

“Of course. I’m still your best friend. And it was good to see you, too.” Michael pulls Jeremy into a hug, made awkward by the angle because he’s still standing, before letting go. “I’ll always be here when you need me.” The _even if you pretend I don’t exist_ goes unsaid but understood between them. He leaves, hopeful that Jeremy is at least taking the issue seriously. He’s done all he can for now, and he knows that if Jeremy needs him he’ll reach out now.

**Author's Note:**

> [Outlast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlast) is a horror game where an investigative journalist goes to a psychiatric hospital and finds the place overrun with patients who want to murder him. The game is spent trying to escape. Do I like how the game demonizes mental health? Not really, but never have I been so scared as when watching gameplay of it.
> 
> Unbetad, so let me know about any spelling/grammar mistakes. Kudos, comments, concrit, feedback, anything you dis/liked, etcetera are appreciated. Drop your favorite line or something in the comments.
> 
> Follow me at [outlawslikeus](https://outlawslikeus.tumblr.com) on tumblr.


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